Page 48 of Rejected Wolf

Swiping the card, the reader gave a high-pitched beep, and the light turned green. I took a deep breath and opened the door. It was time to face my fears.

The first room I came to was straight out of my nightmares, with its cold, metal table and tray of sharp instruments. I stood there, waiting for something to happen. For the pain, the terror. But without the scientists and guards, the overhead lighting dark, it wasn’t scary at all.

It was just a room, nothing more, though an odd electric tension still vibrated through me. I was missing something, I just knew it.

Rubbing at the tightness in my chest, I stepped back into the hall and turned right, walking down to the office atthe end. The door was open, a still-steaming cup of coffee sitting on the desk. This must’ve been Dr. Gray’s office.

There was a gray metal filing cabinet in the corner, and I walked over, hesitating with my fingers wrapped around the handle. I wasn’t a scientist, nor an academic of any kind. My intelligence was limited to what I needed to know about the forest. Did it matter what was inside this drawer? I could just light a match and be done with it all. And yet… I felt drawn to something inside.

With a tug, the drawer coasted out, revealing a handful of folders. I walked my fingers along the tabs. The thickest file had my father’s name on it. My name was there too, and there were files for my siblings, Amelia, Carter, and Isaac. I sniffed, wiping the back of my hand across my eyes. Gods, I missed them. I had no pictures of my family, and even though I knew I would probably regret it, I decided to look. I grabbed Amelia’s file and pulled it out. I took a deep breath and flipped it open to find a picture of her, and my breath caught in my throat.

I was vaguely aware of Silas strolling in behind me. “You guys sure know how to have a good time. We should’ve partnered up ages ago.” He meandered around the room. He was still nude, licking the blood off his claws, but my attention was on the file in my hands.

On the first page, there was indeed a picture of my sister. She looked tired, her hair lank and dull, but… this couldn’t be right. She was much older in this picture than the last time I saw her.

My stomach sank, soared, twisted. With dawning realization, I scrambled to grab my brothers’ files and slapped them down on top of the open drawer. Sure enough, it was the same, pictures of them much older.

“Why do you look weird? What did you find?” Silas asked, sidling curiously over to my side to examine what I was looking at.

“They’re… alive.” My throat tightened, making it hard to breathe. I didn’t dare hope that it could be true.

“Who’s alive?” he asked curiously. “And what are all these files?” Silas grabbed a few more folders from the drawer, because there were others. At least a dozen more, names of people I didn’t know. Were they shifters too? Were they alive somewhere? How many labs were there?!

At the edges of my senses, I felt my packmates moving through the rooms nearby. “Jude?” Shan called, tracking me down.

“Back here,” I called, my voice loud to my ears. My world was changing, expanding, I could feel it.

When he joined us, I turned, ready to tell him what I found, but there was something wrong. He wasn’trelaxed after the victory. His face was pinched tight, blood spattered down his chest. “What’s wrong? Was someone hurt?”

“No, but that’s just it.” He looked down the hall behind him, as if searching for something. “This felt too easy. I don’t like it. Where are all the soldiers?”

I ground my teeth, my heart rate spiking. “If the guards aren’t here, then where are they?”

From farther down the hall, I heard Dawn’s gasp, and she came bolting toward us, clinging to her chest, her eyes wide and panicked. “Shan! Something is wrong. It’s Sasha. He’s hurt.”

Sasha, who hadn’t come with us. He was back at camp helping to watch the kids. With Morgan.

“No!” I roared, panic overtaking all rational thought.

My Alpha turned to me, his face a mirror of the terror I felt. “We need to go! Now!”

Our families were in danger.

Chapter 20

Morgan

I stood there staringat the break in the trees long after the sound of the trucks’ engines had faded into the distance. Pax’s sniffles slowed, but he still clung to me. Just as well, since his overheated body was the only thing staving off the cold. My arms soon began to ache from holding the toddler for so long. He weighed at least 20 pounds, and I wasn’t exactly athletic.

Brody joined us when we didn’t come inside. “Want me to take him?” I just shrugged, not ready to talk. “Okay, come on, buddy,” he said, holding his arms out for Pax, but the child just grunted, turning his face away and burying it into my neck so he didn’t have to look at anyone. Looked like I wasn’t the only one in the mood for a sulk.

Brody sighed. “You know, Pax has the sight. He’s destined to be our shaman one day.”

I frowned. “But he’s just a kid.”

The Alpha Omega shook his head, smiling sadly. “I really wish that were true. He has nightmares almost every night, and sometimes he gets this dazed look in his eyes, and I swear he’s catching a glimpse at the future. That would be hard for anyone, but he doesn’t know how to tell us about what he sees yet.”

I thought that over, with a growing sense of dread. “So, when he screams like he just did, is it because he misses his parents or…” Or was something about to go horribly wrong?

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